'Dragon' a fire-breathing enchantment

ALBANY -- "How to Train Your Dragon" was a popular animated film that combined amazing special effects with a story that captured the hearts of the world. It earned more than $500 million at the global box office.

A live show based on the film opensThursday and runs through Oct. 7 at the Times Union Center. It promises to be a special and spectacular event, featuring 23 fire-breathing, flying dragons, some with a wing span as large as 46 feet. The show will also include Viking warriors, circus artists, acrobats and a state-of-the-art, wall-to-floor projection screen covering 20,000 square feet of the TU Center's wall.

For some idea of the scope of the show, it took 30 18-wheel trucks to transport the props, and requires 150 people to set it all up in two days.

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However, when speaking with Eric Stevens, the head of Live Entertainment for DreamWorks Animation, you realize that the special effects are very important but, in his mind, they are secondary to the telling of the story.

"This will be a great experience at all levels," he said. "But all the effects will mean little if the audience doesn't take the journey with the characters."

He said the goal of the show is to go beyond the special effects and to have the show make an emotional connection with the audience.

"Yes, we tell the story in a spectacular fashion, but it is the intimate moments that are the most affecting for the audience. At its heart, 'How to Train Your Dragon' it is about a kid and a creature he loves. Their struggle to find a way to be together is what people connect to. That demands emotional relevance."

He makes his point recalling the initial discussions held with Global Creatures of Australia, the company that created the dragons. It's the same organization that created the dragons for "Land of the Dragons," which, in 2010, was the number one touring show in the world.

You could see the proud smile on Steven's face when he said, "It outdrew U-2."

Obviously, the first and most important issue DreamWorks addressed with Global Creatures was to find out if they could design dragons that could fly. However, the follow-up questions were equally as important," he said. "Can you make the dragons smile?" "Can you give us 10 different smiles that reflect various emotions?"

"We didn't want the dragons to be cartoon characters," Stevens said. "Our intent was to tell a story, not to create a theme park."

The decision was made not to try to clone the dragons from the film. "We decided not to try to make exact replicas of the dragons in the film. We think of this as its own show that follows the film story very closely," he said. "However, it has its own identity. It's more important that we remain faithful to the story rather than to a physical detail of a dragon."

Stevens said it is another example of how DreamWorks, Global Creatures and their other partners "were willing to throw the rule book out the window."

"It's never easy to accomplish the impossible. But, at DreamWorks, that seems the norm.

"The word can't is not part of our culture at DreamWorks," he said. "We embrace challenges and find new ways to tells stories. With 'How to Train Your Dragon,' we are creating new boundaries."

The TU engagement is part of the United States tour that will extend continue through June of 2013. A European and Asian tour is already scheduled for 2013 into 2015. In other words, "How to Train Your Dragon" will not be coming back to this market anytime soon.